Creating a Workout Plan

by tinareale on February 29, 2012

Today calls for a little celebration! Best Body Bootcamp officially has over 100 participants!

If you are paid and registered, you should have received an email yesterday welcoming you to the bootcamp. I will send the email out to new registrants at the end of each day until registration closes on Sunday. Let me know if you thought you were registered but didn’t receive an email!!

The Best Body Bootcamp is meant to focus on a few things:

help us to stay motivated

learn new workout ideas

challenge us in new ways

help us to focus on other health-related goals of your choosing

have fun with healthy living!

I really want to emphasize the last point. Sure, I want this to be a challenge, but I also want it to be FUN and realistic to each person’s goals and schedule and fitness level. I have been HARD at work (hence no post yesterday) writing details to the plan to hopefully provide just that. I want the workout schedule and plan as flexible as possible.

I believe every quality workout plan provides two things – something to work towards to help hold you accountable AND the flexibility for it to be realistic to your needs and life in general.

I get a kick out of creating workout plans. Heck, I like it so much I made it my job!

For as much as I loathe sitting down to write up a meal plan for the next week, I absolutely adore planning out my workouts for the upcoming week or month or training phase for a race. You can enjoy it as well. Let me share my planning process with you!

CREATING A SOLID WORKOUT OR TRAINING PLAN

Determine the focus. In order to have a fitness plan suited to your goals, you need to KNOW your goals. This is the #1 step, in my opinion, and one too often overlooked. Are you training for a race? Are you hoping to achieve a healthy weight through weight loss? Are you wanting to increase strength? Are you bored and need to mix up your workouts with some fun, new workouts? Know what you want out of your workouts and make sure your plan reflects those goals. The majority of your workouts should relate to your fitness goal.

Add variety. Make sure you don’t have a one-sided plan, though. Make sure you add in other areas of fitness for a well-rounded plan. Seek to include cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility training in your workouts. However, don’t have TOO much variety. Your plan shouldn’t look like the group fitness schedule at your gym. Unless you’re one of these crazyladies who actually ARE the group fitness schedule at their gyms.

Hard AND Easy. Just as you need to include variety in the types of workouts you use, you also need to include variety in the intensity. You cannot go 100% every day of the week and expect your body to respond well over the long haul. To train smart, you should alter your workouts between more and less challenging levels.

Listen to your body. Some people need 2 or 3 full rest days. Some only want one. Some feel soreness 48 hours after a tough workout and, therefore, find two challenging days back to back a better fit. Some feel sore the very next day, and have to plan rest days accordingly. Pay attention to what your body tells you and work your workouts so you have energy when you need it and can push it when you have the energy.

Know your habits. Plan your schedule according to the times and days you will more likely accomplish your workout. Don’t force yourself into a fitness class you hate…and always end up skipping. Don’t schedule that Friday afternoon workout that never seems to happen because you’re always ready for the couch by then.

Have options. In other words, back-up plan. There are plenty of times that schedules have to change. Be willing to remain flexible with your plan and keep some ideas handy for when the original plan won’t work out quite as expected. I like having options for at-home workouts (even 15-20 minute bodyweight ones!) or different days and ways to fit in my runs.

There you have it. Some things to consider to help you set up a solid workout plan! Now, go get your fit on!

I think making sure you have a workout goal is so important! Its a bit strange for me right now as I’m looking to gain a little bit of weight to help my amenorrhoea so my focus has switched from cardio to more strength and yoga. I guess my goal is to retain muscle to add definition to my new curves and to de stress via yoga

my focus these days is just to keep moving and WALK – ultimately to stay strong for labor! but afterwards it would be to lose the baby weight and just get in shape overall, to be healthy, and to be fit and happy in my body!

I love that you wrote “Hard AND Easy”…not every workout calls for ‘ball to the wall’ effort! When I allow for a 1-2 ‘easier than normal’ days, I always notice an improvement in the overall quality of my workouts!

Definitely need to remember those backup plans. I always try to work those into my schedule. You never know what can come up or if someone is using the equipment you might need. It really helps to have that Plan B or even C.

Great tips! My focus used to be running and only running. That led to intense knee pain, so I had to change it up. Now, I focus on variety and workouts I enjoy. Strength training and yoga are also always on my weekly plan. Variety is the spice of life!

These are all really good tips! Somebody taught you (or you figured it out) well.

The toughie for me is always the first one: “Determine the focus. In order to have a fitness plan suited to your goals, you need to KNOW your goals.” … but maybe because I want to be really strong, race a half ironman, but also PB for a 5k time, and look great while I do it. Sometimes it takes a reminder that I can do it all, but trying to do it all at once doesn’t work!

great tips! currently i am just trying to maintain my weight, add some muscle tone, and stay interested in my workouts by mixing things up. in a few weeks i’ll be starting to train for my (FIRST!) half marathon, so my focus and plan will change a bit.

My focus right now is on really toning it up. My wedding/honeymoon is in 51 days (!!) so I’m getting down to the wire for that bikini! I love that you include the tip of making a backup plan. I feel SO guilty when I have to miss a workout, but I think if I have a backup plan it will be no big deal

Right now my workouts are focusing on two different things – toning up and increasing my running mileage. I can tell I’m getting stronger from my strength training habits, I would like to have my muscles pop a little more than they currently are!

Tina- congrats on having so many participants!! That is really exciting! Then again- you definitely know what you’re doing- so I’m not surprised!
I try to do an even balance of cardio + strength training in my workouts and use yoga as recovery. As the weather gets warmer though, I find myself wanting to trade my yoga for long walks or runs. I don’t want to neglect my yoga practice- I think I just need to start taking it outside!

Really great tips! Lately I have been uninspired with workouts. We have this amazing home gym but I need to get some excitement back into my fitness plan. Talking to hubby about grabbing your 8 week workout goal plan.

I think my focus needs to be more on strength, yoga, Pilates type workouts. I have the cardio covered but I get stuck with the others.

I have actually been having a tough time because right now I don’t have any really big goals. Just to maintain and keep loving to workout. I love looking forward to my workouts, so right now my focus is to keep it that way

Great job on all the bootcamp participants!
I love the tips for creating a work out plan. I don’t really follow a plan, I just do a mix of cardio and strength. I do need to make a more structured plan though!

My workout focus changes on a regular basis, depending on whether I’m training for a 1/2 marathon, or need to improve my flexibility through yoga, or whether I just need to get “buff”. Either way, my overall focus is to stay strong, lean, and flexible, by eating well, training hard, and listening to my body!

Wow congrats on the success with boot camp!
Right now my fitness focus is on maintenance mileage, until I begin planning for my 1/2 marathon training! I know I always need ~ 2 days off a week in order for my body to repair properly, so I plan accordingly.

These are some great tips to keep in mind when putting together a fitness schedule. Its very important to know your own habits,because making an unrealistic exercise schedule will do you no good, if you’re never going to stick to it. I like to make a schedule that is one week of a solid workout. According to my class and work schedule, I know which days I will have enough energy to get to the gym, and which I’ll only want to do some ab routines in my apartment.

Wonderful post and a great read. You could not be more right. A solid workout plan will hold the trainer accountable but it should also allow for flexibility. Great post and I look forward to reading more.